After having enjoyed the original storyboard for Episode 3 for five years, it was a pleasant surprise to find the autograph storyboard for Episode 6 turn up on Mandarake. This covers the concluding adventure of the OVA, showing Emerald Earth’s final confrontation with Emperor Vince, Paula Prairie, Moby Dick, and all the other baddies from Planet Gyazaria.

The storyboard was executed by the series’ overall director, Shigeyasu Yamauchi. He was one of the principal episode directors for the Dragonball Z series, and he also worked extensively on St. Seiya. His other work includes contributions to Flame of Recca, One Piece, Cowboy Bebop, and Digimon . Most recently, he directed the 2008 TV series Casshern Sins.

Not having access to the episode itself, I’ve limited myself to typical examples of pages from this manuscript. Its style is quite different from that of Episode 3. Impressionistic and often dreamlike in quality, the images express more abstract mood and energy than explicit storytelling. The distinctive style of roughing in the heads of all the characters is reminiscent of the slightly egg-shaped domes of the DBZ cast. Notice the unusual “italic” cursive Japanese handwriting on all of these pages, which I take to be Yamauchi’s.